Nick’s Walk

Today I was alone. It wasn’t much fun. Rosemary was in Henry taking care of her aunt. Jessie and Kaydence were gone all day. After a busy weekend with a full house, a day alone sounded great. But it wasn’t. I was suppose to just rest and try to stay off my knee. I know it was an opportunity for solo spiritual pursuits or something but that didn’t happen.  I suppose that in truth we are really “alone” most of the time. Even in a crowd we are alone with our thoughts, our concerns, our fears. No one knows everything that we are about. No one except Him. If we don’t cultivate our relationship with the Lord, alone we will always be.  People are great. Loved ones are a blessing. But only Jesus knows us well enough to be a constant companion. Someone to whom we don’t have to explain or pretend. We expend enormous energy keeping up the facade’s that everyone else has come to know as us and, after years of “knowing” us, they now expect. The house is noisy again. No longer alone. Next time I’m by myself, I promise to practice the presence of God. […]

We know that there are wounded in the church. The sources of the wounds are varied. Some were caused by the church, or by it’s members or by elements of an unloving world. The source is not as important as our willingness to care for the wounds. Caring for spiritual wounds is similar to caring for a natural wound. The first step is to clean the wound. Much of the damage from wounds comes not from the original trauma but from the foreign bodies, the nasty stuff, that gets into the wound. In fact, most wounds will heal naturally. But if allowed to fester they become infected. Our spiritual wounds are the same way. We have to clean out all the stuff that has turned a slight into a life damaging situation. After cleaning, a wound must be drained. For a spiritual wound that often means we have to :”talk out” all the hurt and pain and stuff we have allowed to grow in a wound. For those of us trying to help, that means being willing to be available and to listen and to love the hurt one unconditionally.  Next we apply ointment, for us that’s the Holy […]

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 Every church has its share of obvious walking wounded. You know what I’m talking about. They seem to live under a cloud, born losers, never can seem to do anything right. Like Linus they don’t meet potential. In fact, they don’t believe they have potential.  They suck off an incredible amount of church resources and pastor patience. In the end, we don’t seem to know what to do with them. Deep inside we know they have great potential, but it’s difficult, sometimes impossible to see. What should we say to them? How should we treat them. Sadly, and if the truth be known, there are many more hurting than the obvious ones.The tough cases are the wounded ones who never appear wounded, who don’t let their wounds show. That includes almost all of us. Our message needs to be; “God loves you so much that Jesus Christ hung in agony and blood for […]

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 Every church has its share of obvious walking wounded. You know what I’m talking about. They seem to live under a cloud, born losers, never can seem to do anything right. Like Linus they don’t meet potential. In fact, they don’t believe they have potential.  They suck off an incredible amount of church resources and pastor patience. In the end, we don’t seem to know what to do with them. Deep inside we know they have great potential, but it’s difficult, sometimes impossible to see. What should we say to them? How should we treat them. Sadly, and if the truth be known, there are many more hurting than the obvious ones.The tough cases are the wounded ones who never appear wounded, who don’t let their wounds show. That includes almost all of us. Our message needs to be; “God loves you so much that Jesus Christ hung in agony and blood for […]

I read a newspaper this morning. I wasn’t impressed. I did it because it was free at the restaurant where I had breakfast. I had not read a newspaper in weeks. I used to get the newspaper delivered every day. Then, without good reason, my delivery person changed and I stopped receiving the paper. I noticed I really didn’t miss it. I get a daily email from the news paper with the headlines. That’s more information than I need.  It disturbs my wife that I rarely watch the news. I think it gives me a better perspective. There is little good news. I have plenty enough issues of my own without starting my day reading about a lot of things which really don’t impact my daily life. More importantly, the paper contains much I can do nothing about. I’d rather focus on the needs of my family, friends and church. I always seem to find out when those folks need something. I try to keep my ear open to the Lord. If I need to do something, I think He’ll let me know. In some ways, ignorance is bliss and the “news” is not. Be blessed. Nick

Some who know more about sports than I do say, “The best Defense is a good Offense.” I don’t know about sports, but that certainly seems to be true in the Christian walk.  It seems we spend too much time trying not to be bad. We’re trying to get out of trouble rather than to move  into righteousness.  While we certainly need to defend against the world, the flesh and the devil, our primary activity needs to be directed offensively into being “in Christ” and therefore moving into righteousness. That’s where true holiness is.  He is our righteousness. Take the offensive: move into Him, move into righteousness. Nick

“Unhappiness comes from mirrors. Happiness comes from windows.” The Love Worth Finding daily devotional for today written by Adrian Rogers begins with this quote. What a wise observation. Most of the misery of life comes from looking in the mirror at self. Most of the joy comes from looking out of windows at the world our Lord created for us and the struggles others face.  Looking in a mirror everything is reversed. Up is down, left is right. Looking too much at ourselves is reversed as well. Happiness in life is very attitude and perspective based. And perspective has a tremendous influence on attitude. I have been suffering with my knee for the past few days. It got better for Sunday but I’m back using a cane today. It’s easy to be mirror focused when something hurts or your normal mobility is impacted. Today I went to a local drive in to pick up lunch. One of the workers was walking from the drive in to a picnic area behind the business. She was obviously struggling and could hardly walk. Yet she was having to work on her feet all day. My mirror switched to a window and that […]

At Amana we have been studying the names of God. In doing so we are learning about our God, but in the process we are learning much about ourselves. For example, this week we consider the name, Jehovah-Raah, The Lord My Shepherd. It is comforting to know that we have a Good Shepherd. It is a little less comforting to consider that we are sheep. Here are just some of the characteristics of sheep: 1. timid, fearful, easily panicked2. dumb stupid, gullible3. very vulnerable to fear, frustration, pests, hunger4. easily influenced by a leader, by the shepherd5. stampede easily, vulnerable to mob psychology6. little or no means of self-defense; can only run7. easily killed by enemies8. the shepherd is most effective, calming influence9. jealous, competitive for dominance10. constantly need fresh water, fresh pasture11. have very little discernment in choosing food or water12. best water source is early morning dew13. perverse, stubborn – will insist on their own way , even eating poisonousplants or drinking dirty water14. easily “cast” – flipped over on their back, unable to right themselveswill die of starvation if not turned over by shepherd; helpless15. frequently look for easy places to rest16. don’t like to be […]